No more flooded tracks? Dumping points to keep drains unclogged in Mumbai

Commuters travelling on Mumbai’s suburban trains are set to get some relief during the monsoon next year. In order to prevent water logging on the railway tracks, the Western Railway (WR) authorities, along with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), will be setting up dumping points at suburban railway stations.

The dumping points will be set up by the civic body along the railway tracks.

In a meeting with civic officials last week, railway officials pointed out that garbage thrown on the railway tracks by the adjacent buildings and slums often aggravated water logging, as it blocked sewers.

The officials pointed out that removing all the garbage was a herculean task, despite running muck special trains (trains commissioned to collect garbage off the tracks).

The civic body, in response, said that dumping points will be made available for people to throw the garbage, which will then be directly collected and destroyed.

The civic body will also re-start its drive of collecting a fine of Rs500 from people who are seen throwing garbage on the tracks. The BMC had initiated this drive on the Central line earlier this year.

“The problem of accumulation of garbage is severe, as it leads to water logging during the rainy season. The local train services get affected due to this. However, we are hoping that after the dumping points are set up, it will help in preventing water logging,” said a western railway official.

Meanwhile, on the Central railway , the civic and the railway authorities will first attempt to remove garbage from the Harbour line, where there is lesser garbage than the main lines.

Railway officials earlier had to put speed restrictions on the local trains due to the excessive garbage on the railway tracks. One such restriction is near Vikhroli station.

The garbage issue came up after Railway minister Piyush Goyal, in his marathon meeting on September 30 after the Elphinstone Road station tragedy, had asked civic and rail officials to prevent flooding on the railway tracks in the next rainy season.

Goyal had apparently told the authorities that local train services should not be hampered by flooding on the railway tracks.